Well, as I thought, May was a rough month.  We had one really long trip of about 6 hours each way that we drove to a friends wedding.  At $3.49 a gallon, that eats into your gas budget a little.  Obviously, we were unable to avoid going over that part unless we just didn’t go and that really wasn’t an option.

A food intolerance issue changed our diet very suddenly and we found ourselves giving away about 60% of all the food in our house.  And when you give away 60% of your food, you need to replace some of it.  Grocery budget?  Through the roof.  Same with the eating out budget due to the trip to the wedding, my work related New Orleans trip, and Mothers Day.

We also spent way more on gifts in May than we had ever planned on.  Of course, we had forgotten that May was graduation month.  My little brother, a friend, and several relatives graduated.  We also had one wedding that we attended and one we were unable to that we got gifts for.

Towards the end of the month, we ended up pulling some of the money from our emergency savings to cover our account rather than getting overdraft fees.  In the end, we came within$40 of going over our total budget number.  We didn’t, but that’s closer than we have on any other month.  Normally, we’re $2-300 under.

On the bright side, June could be shaping up to be a great month.  Only one short trip so far, one birthday, and not much else.  Plus, there could be a couple of bonus incomes that will happen this month that don’t normally.  If so, we’ll try and use those to get further ahead of our selves and back on track after May.

Want to start your own Total Money Makeover?  Buy the book at Amazon!

[tags]total money makeover,may,june,budget,monthly budget[/tags]

Hi there - could you help spread the word about A Penny Saved? We rely on word of mouth to get new readers. If you would send someone a link, email, or even mention it to your friends, I would truly appreciate it. May Total Money Makeover Update is a post from: A Penny Saved

We haven’t finished the numbers up just yet, but preliminarily I can say that May was a rough month.  Several weddings and trips (to weddings and for work) cost us.  The price of gas didn’t help with that either.  Nor did being on the road and having to eat out.

In the end, we’ll still come out on top, but it may just take a month or two to get back to where we were.  We should be finishing up the money stuff either tonight or this weekend and I’ll try and get an update posted with the final numbers then.

[tags]budget,may,weddings,trips[/tags]

Hi there - could you help spread the word about A Penny Saved? We rely on word of mouth to get new readers. If you would send someone a link, email, or even mention it to your friends, I would truly appreciate it. May was a rough one is a post from: A Penny Saved

Well, we’ve successfully made it through our second full month of the Total Money Makeover. I say successful because we are making some great strides towards our goal of being debt free (except for a mortgage) and having complete control of our money.

In April, we ended up with a little extra income that we hadn’t expected or budgeted for so we used it to finish off our $1000 emergency fund. So, with that done, we can move on to Baby Step 2 which is the debt snowball and the paying off of all debt except for the mortgage.

May is turning out to be a difficult month for us to try and budget for. I’m leaving for a business conference in New Orleans on the 5th and will get back late on the 10th. We then have to leave the next day for a wedding that is about 400 miles from here. Without knowing exactly what our total expenses will be, it’s hard to budget them in. Of course, we were able to set ceiling amounts and budget with those, but it would be nice to be able to know a more exact number.

So, the extra travel expenses combined with a slightly lower than average income from our online ventures are going to make May an interesting month. I’m sure we’ll get through it, but we’re looking at a tight one.

[tags]total money makeover,budget,travel,wedding[/tags]

Hi there - could you help spread the word about A Penny Saved? We rely on word of mouth to get new readers. If you would send someone a link, email, or even mention it to your friends, I would truly appreciate it. April total money makeover update is a post from: A Penny Saved

The end of March officially was the end of the first month in our Total Money Makeover adventure. It’s officially been a lesson in our personal finance dilemma.

Our results are slightly mixed but certainly lean towards the positive. We had a little bit of trouble setting our initial budget and had to make some adjustments through the month. Of course, now that we have a better feel for our expenditures, we should be able to budget a lot more accurately in the coming months. This month will be a little difficult because we have a few extra expenditures that we don’t have on normal months. One of our cars is due for licensing as well as my wife’s drivers license is due for renewal. Hopefully, that will be offset by some extra income and a reduction in grocery expenses.

We’ve also decided to try and compensate for our beginning deficit and include a close approximation of that in our budget. That seems to have made things a little more realistic. Our budget no longer seems to have a huge surplus that we cannot find.

We’ve completed our budget for April and while it does seem tighter than March, I think we’ll end up better than we were in March. As of right now, we’ve completed the first phase of our Total Money Makeover. Our emergency fund is now fully funded at $1000 and as long as it stays that way, we’ll begin our debt snowball in May.

So far, things are looking pretty good for us. Going through the steps for the Total Money Makeover has really turned our finances around. Well, not really our finances, but more how we deal with our finances and manage our money.

[tags]total money makeover,finances,budget,emergency fund,debt snowball[/tags]

Hi there - could you help spread the word about A Penny Saved? We rely on word of mouth to get new readers. If you would send someone a link, email, or even mention it to your friends, I would truly appreciate it. Total Money Makeover Update Month 1 is a post from: A Penny Saved

As I’ve noted in a few earlier posts(here, here, here, and here), my wife and I are making an effort to partake in a Total Money Makeover. It’s been interesting as we’ve learned quite a bit about our money and where it actually goes. Further, it’s given us a better perspective of where we were, are and will be.

Where we were: In a fiscal dump. While we kept a register of our checks and pretty good details on all of our accounts, we just couldn’t seem to get ahead or keep even. We constantly were using up all of our overdraft protection and paying anywhere from $100-$600 in Check defender fees ( a program that keeps you checks from bouncing but you still get a $25 per item fee). Consider taking your monthly finances and draining $100-$600 out of them each month. It hurts. Especially when you don’t gain any benefit or goods from it.

Where we are: Better. After getting a decent tax refund this year, we used it to get ourselves ahead a little and have completely eliminated the Check Defender fees so far this month. We have also completely paid off the Overdraft protection. We’ll still be dipping into the OD protection at the end of the month, but in comparison with previous months, we’ll be able to quickly pay it off as soon as we get paid on the 30th. We have a budget. Our budget balances to $0 each month. We have also discovered that we have plenty to learn about our finances still. All the little things that have come up that will have to be addressed in coming months. Nothing that will break the budget too much. Besides a pending root canal of course.

Where we will be: Ultimately, we want to be debt free. Our immediate goal is to be in total control of our finances and paying off debt each and every month. Our next goal is to have everything paid off except for a couple of our larger student loans and our mortgage. Of course once everything else is paid off, it shouldn’t take long at all to pay those off either so we’ll be completely debt free rather quickly at that point. We’ll have the freedom to take a vacation and be able to afford it. We will be able to pay cash for used cars instead of needing a 3-5 year loan. In short, we’ll be independent from any of the typical debt related constraints.

I have to admit that going into this, I scoffed at Dave Ramsey when, in the Total Money Makeover book, he said that getting started on this plan will give you a feeling of freedom. And after the short two weeks that we’ve been doing the TMM, I have to admit that he was right. We’re not even in complete control of our finances yet, but I already feel so much better about our situation. It is working for us and I plan on recommending it to as many people as possible.

P.S. I still haven’t heard from anyone who has done a TMM yet. I’d like to feature a few guest articles here on other peoples experiences with the Total Money Makeover. If you’re interested, use the Contact form and let me know.

[tags]total money makeover,tmm,dave ramsey,money makeover,budget[/tags]

Hi there - could you help spread the word about A Penny Saved? We rely on word of mouth to get new readers. If you would send someone a link, email, or even mention it to your friends, I would truly appreciate it. Cleaning up the Fiscal Mess we made is a post from: A Penny Saved

Inspired by Dave and his Total Money Makeover, my Wife and I have been wading through our finances and the worksheets putting things together and getting things in order.

I really had thought that we had our finances under control. We’ve had a few issues, but mostly we keep pretty good records and pretty good track of our money. Then we began working the worksheets that are a part of the Total Money Makeover. What a shock.

What I discovered, is that we had only about a 50% understanding of where our money was going. The rest? Well, it’s safe to say that some of it was findable, but the rest was completely a mystery. Completely. No idea where it goes.

So with that revelation, we’ve been struggling with the budgetary part of the makeover. Neither of us has ever even used a budget, let alone done one as far reaching and thorough as the Total Money Makeover cash flow budget.

Last night, we finally (after two nights) managed to get through the worksheets. We’ve still got a lot of tweaking to do to get it right, but the skeleton is there. And what a relief that is. It really takes a bit of a load off of your shoulders when you have a plan like that. You don’t worry about where money is going and can see the light at the end of the tunnel. It really is amazing. Now we just have to follow through and get it done.

[tags]total money makeover,debt,budget,worksheets,money,savings[/tags]

Hi there - could you help spread the word about A Penny Saved? We rely on word of mouth to get new readers. If you would send someone a link, email, or even mention it to your friends, I would truly appreciate it. Monetarily out of control is a post from: A Penny Saved

I’ve got the ING account all set up and tied to my Credit Union account as well as to my PayPal account. The beauty of that is that I will be able to siphon off some of the profit from our little side eBay business in order to meet our savings goals.

What are our savings goals you ask? Well, we’re desperately trying to adhere to the Total Money Makeover plan, so our initial goal is a $1000 Emergency Savings . That is what this particular savings account will become. Already we are at a little over $675 thanks to our tax return, the $25 sign up bonus and a little extra from PayPal for account verification.

So, with that good of a start, we’ll sit down and finalize our full budget. We’ll begin filling up the emergency fund of $1000 and once that is full, we’ll begin the real work. The debt payoff.

I’m guessing that the debt payoff will still take us at least a couple of years, but I’m hoping to be pleasantly surprised. All said and done, after you include college loans and car loans, we’ve got well over $100,000 in debt. You may not think it’s much, but when you don’t even make half of that combined, it’s very nearly an everest sized mountain. Add on our mortgage, and we get pretty darn close to the $160,000 mark if not surpass it.

I’m still interested in hearing from anyone who has gone through or is going through a Total Money Makeover and would be willing to share their story with me and possibly my readers. Use the contact form to let me know and share your story!

[tags]total money makeover,debt,savings,ing direct,mortgage,emergency savings[/tags]

Hi there - could you help spread the word about A Penny Saved? We rely on word of mouth to get new readers. If you would send someone a link, email, or even mention it to your friends, I would truly appreciate it. Savings started, now what? is a post from: A Penny Saved

I’ve had Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover on my reading list for quite a while and when I received it for Christmas, it got bumped up a little ways. I’m nearly half way through it and so far am quite impressed.

In theory, what Dave has had to say seems to be pretty good advice. It’s sound and isn’t a get rich quick or eliminate your debt in 30 days kind of program. It’s a life long commitment to living a sound financial life.

I’m fairly sure that we will have begun our own Total Money Makeover soon. Probably before I’ve completed reading the book. What I’m wondering now is if any of you out there have had a Total Money Makeover? If you have, I’d love to hear your story. Leave it here in the comments or use the contact form. Share with me. Share with your fellow readers.

[tags]dave ramsey,total money makeover,money[/tags]

Hi there - could you help spread the word about A Penny Saved? We rely on word of mouth to get new readers. If you would send someone a link, email, or even mention it to your friends, I would truly appreciate it. Total Money Makeover is a post from: A Penny Saved